The Mirror's Angel
by AriaNight
Summary: Skilled swordfighter Cecilia, and animal magician Willow, set out on a journey after recieving a mysterious request by a Queen they know next to nothing about, other than her castle lives in a forest. Plz Plz review :
1. Chapter 1 The Legend

_Ok, this chapter's just the preview or whatever they call the paragraph at the back of books are. ;/ This story is what i wrote for my year 8 English short story and i just thought maybe someone would read it if i posted it on Fanfiction (i got full marks for my short story if anyone cares ;))_

_My other story- Arena of the Undead is a Vampire Academy Fanfic i wrote a few months ago and i posted it a few days ago i Recommend reading it if you are a VA fan there is a little language and violence but i still got 5 reviews before morning! *Happy Dance*_

_Im srry, too many smiley faces? ;D_

_Im proud of this story and really hope you like it too _

_Onwards! Too Adventure!_

**Chapter 1 The Legend**

**Once upon a time, there was a magnificent castle, owned by a family of royals who were well known to the people who served them. They took pride in the castle for its beauty and splendour that was awed upon by all who lived there and the rare visitors the castle had.**

_Maybe there were rare visitors because the castle was built in the depths of a mysterious forest known as shadow forest..._

_Or maybe it was because of the rumours that claimed the castle's forest was haunted by a winged being..._

The story starts like this...


	2. Chapter 2 The Mirror

**Chapter 2**

Dark-pathway winded up to meet them, almost cackling with glee at how far they had to go through the daunting forest. The pathway was the only way they had found that led to Flowerdew way, the only clear path to the castle.

" No Cecilia! I don't want to go through that horrible forest" a high and obviously frightened voice said.

" We have to Willow!, the Queen sent the letter that asked for us specifically" this voice was the voice of a leader, ringing with authority over the smaller figure who more or less cowered over the idea of stepping into the forest.

The two girls had been arguing for the last hour at the entrance of this forest. Cecilia, the more dominant one, was impatient to get the argument over with; she stood closer to the path than the other, proving that she wasn't afraid of the forest and the creatures dwelling in it.

"we're getting nowhere just standing here Ceci."

An uncomfortable silence was swelling, as if the air had gotten thicker with the arguments intensity.

Suddenly the shorter one, Willow, hung her head in defeat.

"fine, but only because i know nothing is going to happen to me with you here." She said.

Cecilia smiled at Willow, happy for the girl's sudden trust in her. Not that it surprised her in the slightest, they had been friends since the first year of fighting school, and where the only thing they were taught was to use a sword and fight with skill.

Cecilia was a high ranked swordsman, and she was confident in her ability to thwart all who opposed her in fighting, even if her opponent was bigger or older than her, even though she was only 16. Just a year older than fragile Willow.

But she would always be jealous of the shorter but slim girl with black curly hair who stood in front of her, this girl was special, one of the rare humans who could control animals, even if the animal was opposing them. Some of these people could even call upon a mythological creature to defend them in a time of need.

But Willow was still to discover her defending creature.

Some animal controllers are said to call upon phoenix's or dragons, depending on the character of that person and the creature. **(AN- sort of like the Daemons in The Golden Compass only not mythical animals/creatures.)**

Willow whipped her head high up and walked further into the forest with a lash of sudden confidence.

Then she stopped dead and turned around, looking straight at Cecelia with a kind of expected expression on her face and said. "Well, let's stop stalling time and get over with it quickly."

She flinched as Cecelia pulled out her gem-encrusted blade and held it at her side.

"let's go then" she replied frostily.

And they walked carefully into the forest's dark abyss.

Meanwhile, at the castle...

"Lady Celeste'!, word has been sent that your request of the two swordfighters is underway, their current location is somewhere between Flowerdew path and the forests entrance."

The queen, who the speaker was talking to, was a rather tall lady, she was what the people of the castle would call the incarnation of "white beauty".

She was a striking figure, "as pale and beautiful as the full moon at midnight", the castle people would say, you could easily tell that even in a dark room her pale skin wouldn't change in tone, which even exaggerated how dark her hair was against her skin. Her hair was pitch black and its ringlets of spirals fell gracefully around a heart-shaped face.

Curiosity beamed out of her bright lapis-lazuli eyes with flecked rainbow colours throughout her irises, a small and dainty nose, and her lips were as blood-red as blooming roses.

But what stood out was the shock of diamond whiteness in elegant, angelic wings that arched up, and around this beautiful lady.

She was standing next to the speaker in the doorway to a magnificently spacious hall, there were no tables or chairs in this grand room, just a very long hall-runner that was wide enough for two people to walk comfortably on, but this was not the case, what with the lady's diamond wings.

So she walked forward and along the elegant white and gold-trimmed hall-runner, passing all the antique, gold framed portraits that hung on the wall of former Kings and Queens who ruled the castle while guiding the people through her reign like all the ancestors before them.

As the hall-runner stopped, so did the in front of her was a rather strange wall, a grey, drawn colour with no hanging portrait hung lady with wings raised her slim arm and moved it to the wall,

And it went straight through!

Her hand, as it touched the greyness, went through it and the grey wall started to swirl around her hand like a whirlpool without touching her skin.

"You should drop your head to the floor so you're not looking at it dead-on, ok Ricardo?" Her voice high and elegant, a slight accent could be heard, but not enough to know where from.

The first speaker, Ricardo, hung his head and fixed his whole black eyes on the floor, as if to study every inch of the white tiling that started when the hall-runner stopped.

The lady gave a start as she encountered resistance in the grey, whirly smoke, she dove her other hand into the smoke and yanked something back with both her hands.

A crystal ball, pulsating a golden glow that turned the entire room's whiteness to brilliant gold. The lady cupped it into her pale palms and raised the ball to eye level, then she looked deeply into the orbs light.

After some time, she lowered the orb from her face and looked to the grey swirling wall, which had continued swirling when the lady had withdrawn her hands. Now it was swirling faster and faster until the outer sides of the whirlpool-like greyness was disappearing like mist being waved away.

When all the smoke had gone, what stood before them was a giant mirror, which stretched from wall to wall and floor to ceiling, it reflected the room behind them in its exact.

Then she spoke to it,

"I, Celeste' Decapri, stand before you, great mirror, and request you show me the adventurists Cecelia and Willow who are currently located in shadow forest, dark path."

10 seconds past without anything happening, then abruptly the reflection that the mirror was showing changed, went black then cleared. Trees, lots of trees and large ferns appeared, no buildings at all. There was a faint pathway winding through all the trees and plant growth.

Then two figures were visible as they came walking down the path, taller one, Cecelia, in front, gripping a sapphire and aquamarine gem-encrusted long sword. The shorter one, Willow, behind her and glancing around warily as if she expected an attack at any time.

Dark path had a kind of mysterious aura in the air, like there was a very real possibility of shadows jumping out and dragging the helpless girls into the darkness.

But they weren't helpless, Cecelia had an expression that meant she was ready for anything that wanted to do them harm.

Lady Celeste' spoke to Ricardo.

"well, no harm has befallen them so far, they will be arriving at the castle by dusk, i would think."

"Yes, Lady Celeste', as soon as they arrive i will send them here"

Ricardo replied.

"Good, but i think you should go have a drink from the resource room so you're not, ah, hungry when our guests get here."

And with that last note, Lady Celeste' dismissed the man with the whole black eyes.

As he walked back down the hall-runner and out the giant double-doors to find the resource room below ground, Lady Celeste' lifted up the orb that she was still holding and placed the now dim-lighted orb onto the mirror. Mist swirled up to cover the mirror again until the mirror was not visible at all behind the grey smoke.

She released her hand from the orb and pulled her hand out of the slightly swirly smoke, than it stilled. She turned and began gracefully pacing the length of the grey wall, 50 steps that way, and 50 steps the other way, over and over again.


	3. Chapter 3 Flutterwings

**Chapter 3**

"Willow get down!" Cecelia yelled while almost yanking the startled girl to the ground and at the same drawing her sword out of her holster, at her waist.

They had been walking peacefully, yet warily along the pathway, Cecelia had heard a faint rustle to the right, closer to Willow than her. So she had automatically gone into instinctive mode.

Yanking Willow's startled figure to her other side and away from the attacker, she brought her sword up, ready to slash at the attacker if it rushed her.

Silence rang...nothing...

Then chaos broke out in all directions, black figures lunged out and encircled the two girls. They snarled their wide mouth, showing off pointed silver tipped teeth that glinted in the light that escaped through the trees thick branches. One of the dark figures howled with its head arched upwards, as if to confront the full moon.

But halfway through its howl it stopped and made a loud gurgling whine.

Blood was welling up and out of the creatures mouth and also gushing from its throat, Cecelia's sword was dripping with gore down the length of the glinting steel. She had slit the creature's throat before it could counter the attack or see her coming.

The other creatures froze as this happened, then they jumped on the dead one and bolted, taking the body with them.

"Ssshadow, ssspiritss. I th-think." Willow stuttered as she staggered to her feet.

"if you say so, come on! Let's put some distance between them and us. Those things don't look like they be introducing themself by name if we met again."Replied Cecelia.

Willow smiled as they hastened down the path.

Half an hour later...

Cecelia and Willow were still walking, when up ahead they spotted a wooden board nailed into a dead tree.

**Flowerdew Way**

The sign was worn out and old, cracks in the wood split in the middle of letters and dulled the lettering, thus making it almost hard to read.

Cecelia spoke.

"I think you'll enjoy this part of the forest, this is where the flutterwings originated."

"oh really!, how wonderful!... Why here?" Willow was ecstatic about this, she was interested in flutterwings, they were so beautiful, with their big blue wings, and the way that if you tried to touch one of their wings your fingers would go straight through, the creature would shimmer like it had been tickled, making the wings glitter with tiny sapphires.

Cecelia sighed as if she were trying to reason with a child, who was impatient to know everything.

"because Flutterwing's drink Flowerdew, that's why this part of the forest is called Flowerdew way, its full of calla lilies because only that flower's fragrance in particular is irresistible to them, the dew that wells up from the centre of the bulb is full of their scent you see, then it spills over and creates a small pool of clear dew-water. The flutterwings then hover above the surface of the little pool and dip their tiny black feet to scoop up a drop of clear dew and then fly away with the dewdrop."

"But what i think is absolutely fascinating is the fact that in the reflection of the dewdrops, the flutters have six reflections! And each reflection is a different colour!"

Cecelia ended her speech on flutterwings with that. Much to Willow's disappointment, for she was listening in rapture.

The scenery had changed as they had been talking, changing from the dank, misty air and brown trees to a springlike warmth, vibrating the air with a nice comfortable aura.

But no colour.

All black and white.

Not a tree had even the lightest of brown tones. Not a fern had the slightest of green palor.

Willow shivered and an expression of dread passed on her face.

"This place is eerier than dark path." She said.

Cecelia glanced at her and turned back to their path and said tonelessly:

"Yes, the only colour found in Flowerdew way is the calla lilies and the flutterwings."

Willow sighed.

So they continued through the colourless pathway...

Pacing, pacing, pacing...

Then pause.

The pacing continues

Lady Celeste' was deep in thought, no one disturbed her.

Dusk was coming.

"flutterwings! Cecelia look!" Willow was ecstatic, stumbling with clumsiness in her haste to move quicker.

Cecelia looked up, she had been distracted by the reflection of the black and white forest in her swords glittering gems.

Now she looked up and saw the colours. Colour! Bright yellow calla lilies were scattered all around the floor of the forest on either side of the path. Then shocks of blue fluttering creatures came darting out of tree trunks and doing synchronized circling around the yellow lilies, one after the other, until they came to rest next to the dew that pooled at the base of the flowers stem.

Cecelia looked further past this colourful scene and saw a parting in the trees.

"We made it! Look! It's the castle!"

And standing there, sure enough was a magnificent castle, the one they had come to see.

People came rushing out and they were greeted and welcomed while they were led inside it and past corridor after corridor and level after level to one of the highest rooms, which, the people said was the 'white room' before they left them with a man.

Willow was frightened of this man, but she pretended not to, for this man was the most frightening looking person she's ever seen.

His face was the first thing she saw, and she wanted to look away straight away, but her eyes were fixed on him with wide eyes.

He had short, black hair, straight as an unbent nail, a hooked nose and a leering kind of amused twist to his mouth, but what shocked her was his eyes. His eyes! They were black fathomless eyes, no pupil, just a glistening black. He began to speak:

"Lady Celeste' requests an audience with you."

And with that he turned and walked into the castle. The man led them up winding staircases that led upwards and wide corridors with ceiling high windows until he opened a large set of symbol-encrusted doors to a long hall-runner, gesturing them to follow.

Cecelia gathered her thoughts first and followed the strange man, then Willow hastened after her, timidly peeping out from behind Cecelia and all the while shaking.

"Welcome, Cecelia and Willow! This is my beautiful castle, thank you for coming on such short notice!"

Willow was openly staring at her, amazed at Lady Celeste's appearance, especially the Lady's wings! Shocked that such a beautiful figure would need to finish the look with wings.

Cecelia elbowed Willow in the ribs and gave her an exasperated glance.

"Why did you call us?" She said.

Ricardo, the dark man with the fathomless eyes, whipped his head and glared at Cecelia with a kind of intimidating expression and he would have said something had not Lady Celeste' spoke before he had the chance.

"It's a matter of urgency" She spoke indifferently.

Cecelia regarded this and then nodded, gesturing for her to continue.

"You see, my time of reign is almost over, which means i need the advantage of a blood-related heir close by to take over and claim their rightful place.

This is why i have sent for you two"


End file.
